In it's intro, The Wesleyan Bible Commentary (WBC) describes itself as "a six-volume commentary" with three OT and three NT volumes. They add that the first volume is "divided into two books, Vol. I—Part I, and Vol. I—Part II," which if you were to buy it off of the shelf, would give you seven physical books. Logos follows the WBC lead so that the seven volumes in your collection are labeled as volumes 1 through 6. All sixty-six books of the Protestant Bible are covered. With copyrights dating from 1966 through 1969 this is an older commentary produced before a lot of political correctness crept into the Church The intro also informed me that staff involved with the commentary project was "selected from nine different denominations, which include the Church of God, . . .Church of the Nazarene, Evangelical United Brethren, Free Methodist, Friends, Methodists, Missionary Church Association, Pilgrim Holiness, and Wesleyan Methodist." The WBC includes the text from the American Standard Version where Jonah 2 verse 1 reads: "Then Jonah prayed unto Jehovah his God out of the fish’s belly." W. Ralph Thompson, who was ordained in the Free Methodist Church, provides the commentary here. In part he tells his readers, "One of the brightest truths that shines through Jonah’s prayer is that neither circumstances nor place puts the repentant sinner beyond the reach of a merciful God. While rebellion closes God’s ear ([Psalm 66 verse 18]), no place is too distant or dark for the penitent to be heard" (Vol 3, p 663). Fabulous!

The overview of The Letter of James from the AYBC incorrectly states that Luther "disliked this letter for its emphasis on good deeds" without any context and thus misses the mark. Sadly, Luther did call James "an epistle of straw." In context, however, at least two forces were shaping Luther's comments on the epistle 500 years ago. First, Luther was highly experienced with passages that teach us salvation comes by the grace of God through faith in Christ Jesus with no works of self-righteousness. Second, Luther had positioned himself against the Roman Church's use of papal indulgences and works not borne of faith as avenues to heaven. As found in the 95 Theses, Luther believed that good works are a fruit of the Spirit and a part of Christian living. Theses 45 states, "Christians should be taught that he who sees someone needy but looks past him and buys an indulgence instead receives not the pope's remission but God's wrath" (Oberman, Luther, 77). Again, Oberman advocates for Luther's high view of good works when he tells his readers that Luther said, "I should be called Doctor bonorum operum, the Doctor of good works" (77). Two more important proofs include: 1) A famous quote of Luther's that shows he highly valued good deeds: "God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does" and 2) Luther quoted from James, as authoritative Scripture, in the Large Catechism (Janzow, LLC, 97).

Though I’m Lutheran, I wanted a look at the Orthodox Church and thought this would provide that since I could link it alongside other commentaries and study Bibles, including The Lutheran Study Bible in Logos. To help me with my choices I often search the Internet for reviews to get a better understanding of what I buy through Logos, because Logos only provides very basic information about a given product. There are some very disappointing reviews of The Orthodox Study Bible (Thomas Nelson, 2008) at Amazon. And a disappointing review of The Orthodox Study Bible (Thomas Nelson, 1993) from Priest Seraphim Johnson at orthodoxinfo-dot-com who provides a pattern of problems and says, "There is not anything inherently wrong in the idea of writing notes on a Bible to help convince non-Orthodox of the truth of Orthodoxy (assuming the notes accurately reflect the true views and positions of Orthodoxy, which is by no means always the case in the Study Bible), but it would be better to advertise the Bible as such, perhaps calling it the Orthodox Evangelism Bible, rather than to present it as if it is designed to help Orthodox Christians grow deeper in their understanding and practice of the faith.” Well, that is not want I’m looking for. To be fair, Amazon also offers a lot of “good” reviews of this study Bible, and I did not read very many of them, but none of the reviews I read started by telling me of the reviewers unique Orthodox qualifications, which, of course add weight to want is said. Logos does not mention that this is a newer version of The Orthodox Study Bible, so, in addition, it does not tell the potential buyer of updates, corrections, major changes, etc. Also, the orthodoxinfo-dot-com website holds a link to use if you want to by the 2008 edition of The Orthodox Study Bible. Under the link it says, “Despite its flaws this is worth reading, both by Orthodox and non-Orthodox.” I can easily agree that a Christian can find some worth in read notes on the Bible. The problem is knowing how to separate the flaws from that which is worthy.

Glad to add this classic version of the Bible to my Logos collection, which the Lockman foundation titles The Amplified Bible, Expanded Edition (1987). I could not find the up to date version in my Logos Search. No doubt when Logos made this Bible available it was current scholarship, but it was updated in 2015, almost four years ago as I write this comment. The Lockman Foundation calls their current offering the "Amplified Bible" (AMP) and now refers to their original version of the Amplified Bible as the “Amplified Bible, Classic Edition” (AMPC). In their preface to The Amplified Bible, Expanded Edition (the edition Logos offers), and the Logos Overview (above), they give an example of the amplification incorporated in the Bible using the Greek pisteuo as it is used in John 11:25. Pisteuo is usually translated "believe," but the AMP Bible includes other possible meanings such as “cleave to” and “to trust" to provide a deeper understanding to the translated text. A student of Greek knows this and anyone with a Greek lexicon can look it up, but the AMP provides the comprehensive meaning along with the text of the Bible using a system of parentheses and brackets with a marvelous result. Highly recommended. Looking forward to using the 2015 version in Logos before it is outdated. While my intention is not to promote Bible Gateway, placing a URL in this comment is against Logos guidelines. If you are familiar with their website, you can see the AMP and AMPC side by side.